Yugoslav Self-management Research Articles

"Dva plana i dva maršala" u svetlu jugoslovensko-američkih odnosa (1947-1951)

Bearing in mind the character of Yugoslav foreign policy after WWII, as well as the state of Yugoslav-American relations, Yugoslavia rejected to participate in the Marshall Plan in 1947, but at the same time, it presented the First Five-Year Plan. The Tito-Stalin split in 1948 was a significant turning point in Yugoslav perception of the Marshall Plan. Although the generally negative attitude towards the Marshall Plan was still present, the absence of the main economic support from the Soviet Union conditioned the gradual Yugoslav turn towards the West and the search for new trade partners or donors of economic aid. The economic blockade of the Eastern Bloc in 1949, and the potential danger of their coordinated attack on Yugoslavia, called into question the survival of the Five-Year Plan in its originally conceived form. In such circumstances, a period of significantly changed American economic policy towards Yugoslavia began, and Yugoslav diplomacy had to engage in negotiations with the West. Such a policy was successful, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in addition to the intensified policy of securing export licenses, the United States granted loans to Yugoslavia through official channels and its influence in international institutions. Yugoslav criticism of the Marshall Plan at the time of the change in American economic policy was getting quieter. The newly established system of Yugoslav self-management set the ideological framework for building economic relations with both East and West. However, a far more significant legacy of the period of Yugoslav-American relations discussed in this paper was the laying of the foundations for the continuity of more intensive economic and political relations between the two countries throughout the Cold War and American policy that sought to "keep Tito afloat".

The parallax landscape and its middle-class spatiality: the case of the Julino Brdo housing estate, Belgrade

The housing estate of Julino Brdo was built in the late 1960s in the Čukarica municipality of Belgrade, and housed the ‘middle class’ of Yugoslav selfmanagement socialism – managers, experts, and administrators, in an area that was also populated by the improvised homes of illegal settlers. Approaching the estate from the north, the observer first notices two clusters of homogeneous masses rising out of a plateau known as ‘Grujina Strana’. As the observer moves forward, the estate briefly disappears from sight, only to reappear as a single cluster merged with the steep sides of the plateau.

The long hand of workers’ ownership: Performing transformation in the Uljanik Shipyard in Yugoslavia/Croatia, 1970-2018

In 2012, the large Uljanik shipyard in Pula (Croatia) was finally privatized, as a result of pressure from the European Union. The new owners were the workers (and pensioners) of the shipyard. History seemed to have come full circle: thanks to ‘privatization’, a previously ‘socially owned’ Yugoslav enterprise returned once again into the hands of workers. Yet, a closer look reveals that much has changed both on the shop floor and in the business strategies of the firm. In this article, we discuss performances of transformation relating to the Uljanik shipyard over the period from 1970 to the present, drawing on archival research, observations made in Pula and interviews with Uljanik workers. The article reveals how workers, managers and state officials understood their roles on the stage of this enterprise, and how they interrelated. Various important paradoxes relating to the ‘transformation’ from Yugoslav self-management to self-managed capitalism are revealed in the process. These experiences help to explain the difficulties in restructuring shipbuilding in Croatia today.

“Listen, Marxist!”: On the Forgotten Past of Self-Management and the Contemporary Orgasms of History

Abstract In this article, we argue that self-management should not be understood only as an economic project, but rather as a political form based on the transformation of the core principles of modern capitalist societies. We start from the supposition that self-management does not imply an economic, but primarily a political recomposition of society, which is why it is necessary to draw attention to the economic reductionism in the discussions on self-management. The purpose of this article is three-fold: first, we recover the original meaning of self-management, its forgotten, anarchist (pre)history, and elaborate on the anarchist theory of organisation that has dynamised the idea/practice of self-management throughout history. Second, we analyse Yugoslav self-management through the categories and concepts of Praxis philosophy, which leads us to the conclusion that the Yugoslav model of self-management was above all a non-political form that remained in the framework of liberal democratic theory. Finally, we explore the global mass assembly movement Occupy, building on the recent academic attention devoted to the notion of non-state spaces. We analyse the encampments and occupied squares as self-managed exilic spaces in which protesters (in)voluntarily escaped from both state regulation and capitalist accumulation.

In Search of the Lost Alternative

Some of the basic ideas from Darko Suvin’s book Splendour, Misery, and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia are analyzed in the essay. Suvin’s hypothesis that Yugoslav self-management represents a unique historical experience of the possibility to set the foundations for liberation from class domination and build a human community based on social equality and individual freedom is tested against historiographic and sociological research data. Suvin’s own idea about the radical break between the first phase of the development of self-management (1950–70) as a possible revolutionary liberating platform and the second phase (1970–90) in which new class relationships were developed in the country is also discussed. At a more general theoretical level, the problem of the actual possibility for a historical break with the still developing capitalist mode of production and the possible actor of the radical social change Suvin is dealing with in his book are addressed.

Automotive factory ‘Crvena Zastava’: Yugoslav self-management socialism and challenges for national automobile industry

In 1955 the Automotive Factory ‘Crvena Zastava’ (Red Flag factory) began to manufacture automobiles based on the FIAT license and became a driving force of the communist Yugoslavia transformation from an agrarian into industrialised, urban and motorised country. This paper explores Zastava’s experience of building and developing the Yugoslav automobile industry in the context of the Yugoslav self-management system from the 1950s to the 1980s. The article aims at showing that the concept of self-management was sensible in light of the multinational Yugoslavia break from the Soviet bloc, but that the net effect of its implementation proved problematic for the national automobile industry . Additionally, Zastava leadership attempts to achieve a larger industrial scale and financial autonomy clashed with the Yugoslavia trend towards decentralisation as much as the communist leadership’s fear of an alternative centre of power.

Strange Girl's (1962) love ideology: the promise of modernity and failure of emancipation

ABSTRACTThe article explores Jovan Živanović's youth melodrama Čudna devojka/Strange Girl (1962). I discuss why a particular genre configuration (melodrama qua coming-of-age story) becomes notably relevant in the time of Yugoslav conflict between socialist economic reforms and patriarchal/paternalist social patterns, and how Živanović's film responds to this concern. Reading the film through this genre configuration illustrates the unfair world of Yugoslav socialism, where the only way for the young heroine to be integrated is to renounce her mondain emancipatory practices. I argue that love, which drives the action in the film, resides on the idea of sacrifice which transforms the young heroine from emancipated modern girl into a working wife and mother. The film's love ideology is thus explained through the larger sociocultural context of Yugoslav self-management reform, and the beginning of a genuine consumerist society. The two opposing tendencies, which also transformed into Yugoslav intergenerational and intra-social clashes of the time, are interpreted as the ideological background of the heroine's patriarchal maturation in a socialist society.

Consumers as the Vehicles of Socialism. Consumer Protection in the System of Yugoslav Self-Management and Associated Labour

Although consumer councils in Yugoslavia were established during the fifties, immediately after self-management was introduced, their influence gradually faded and, by early sixties, they largely terminated their operations. Their revival ensued in late sixties in local community offices, but it gained momentum after the adoption of the 1974 constitution which guaranteed consumers the right to protection. The role of the working man and citizen as a producer and a consumer was additionally regulated by the 1976 Associated Labour Act, and a number of other regulations. These activities coincided with the end of the decade when the purchasing power and the standard of living increased. At the republican level, the protection system was coordinated by the Consumer Council within the Republican Conference of the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Croatia, which in turn relied on counterpart councils in municipalities and consumer councils in local community offices. Most of the work was in fact done at that lowest level. Social compacts and self-management agreements with companies and hospitality associated labour organizations in their respective areas of operation were made in an effort to align the interests of consumers and producers. These mostly concerned the density of the retail network and price policies, the need for longer working hours, the quality of merchandise and services, and better staff decorum. The archives of the republican Consumer Council is the key historical source in this regard: Council’s documents, downward communication and minutes from meetings are evidence of the accomplishments and failures in establishing the protection system, activating citizens and raising their awareness of consumer rights.

Zavodi “Crvena Zastava”: Yugoslav Self-Management Socialism and Challenges for the Automobile Industry

This paper explores the experience of the Zavodi “Crvena Zastava” (Red Flag factory) of building the Yugoslav automobile industry between 1950s and 1980s. In 1954 Zastava began to manufacture automobiles based on the FIAT license and became the engine that drove the transformation of Yugoslavia from an agrarian into industrialized, urban and motorized country. However, its own development was hampered by the lack of stability in the Yugoslav socialist system under continual process of change and decentralization. This paper will examine crucial stages in Zastava’s development in the context of the Yugoslav evolving self-management system in order to discuss some theoretical issues and problems of practical applications. The aim is to show that while the concept of self-management was reasonable in the light of Yugoslavia’s break from the Soviet bloc, the net effect of its practices proved problematic for the automobile industry.

Exploring Commons Theory for Principles of a Socialist Governmentality

Acknowledging that the concept of the commons is increasingly considered valuable for uniting left struggles, we develop the theory of the commons by strengthening its link with a Marxist critique of capitalism. In order to do so, we draw parallels between the work of Elinor Ostrom on principles of sustainable governance and Branko Horvat’s theory of self-management developed in the context of socialist Yugoslavia. We employ Foucault’s concept of governmentality to address the need for a socialist political rationale and governing principles, drawing our starting points from Ostrom and Horvat. First, we leave behind commons theorizing that relies on “exodus” strategies, instead drawing inspiration from Yugoslav self-management as an attempt of linking up the firm to wider social relations aimed at creating egalitarian, radically democratic, and materially sustainable societies. Second, we propose that the search for alternatives to capitalism and etatism goes beyond a change in ownership regime, and into principles of governance. While much of the contemporary progressive political agenda is concerned with distributional issues, we propose that devising governance principles to disable the formation of class control is the crucial innovation needed to advance a socialist governmentality. Finally, formulating the principles of socialist governmentality requires abandoning our reliance on indefinite economic growth which is seriously threatening the material base of human life.

Song of Brotherhood, Dance of Unity: Cultural-Entertainment Activities for Yugoslav Economic Emigrants in the West in the 1960s and 1970s

The article deals with the ways in which the ‘cultural-entertainment activities’, organized by the Yugoslav government for Yugoslav economic emigrants in the West, were imbued with the patriotic propaganda and shaped by the socialist modernization discourse. In the 1960s, the Yugoslav state, together with national radio stations and Matica iseljenika institutions, supported large and financially lucrative music tours based on folk music, the content and staffing of which were in accordance with the federal and multiethnic structure of the country. However, in the early 1970s, the state support shifted towards smaller-scale activities, in order to fight accusations of commercialization and to facilitate migrants’ amateurism as a form of Yugoslav self-management being transplanted to a capitalist soil, presenting it as an inherently transnational phenomenon. Although the principle of inter-ethnic reciprocity and republics’ quotas remained as an imperative, the Yugoslav state now concentrated on the ‘cultural’ events rather than on folk-inspired ‘entertainment’, in order to elevate the intellectual status of migrant workers and bring them closer to the ideals of an emancipated working class.

Agency, History and the Impossibility Theorem: Lessons from Yugoslav Self-Management

Agency, History and the Impossibility Theorem: Lessons from Yugoslav Self-Management

Mapping the Paths of the Yugoslav Model: Labour Strength and Weakness in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia

This article addresses three interrelated issues. First, it re-assesses the legacy of Yugoslav self-management and looks at the reasons why this particular historical legacy provided labour in Yugoslavia with certain advantages not in evidence elsewhere in East Europe. Second, it tries to give a theoretically founded explanation as to why the paths of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia diverged in terms of the strength of trade unions. And finally, it proposes a typology within which to organize the experiences that these countries and their labour movements have gone through in the last decade and a half.

Paradigm Lost :Yugoslav Self-Management and the Economics of Disaster

Democracies create free markets that offer economic opportunity, make for more reliable trading partners and are less likely to wage war on one another. While democracy will not soon take hold everywhere, it is in our interest to do all that we can to enlarge the community of free and open societies, especially in areas of greatest strategic interest, as in Central and Eastern Europe. I believe it is easier to wage war than to organise [sic] the government and direct social development, becau...

Exchange Ideology as a Moderator of the Relationships Between Importance of Participation in Decision Making and Job Attitudes

The present study examined the relationships between reported importance of participation in decision making and three job attitudes of relevance to Yugoslav self-management, namely job satisfaction, perceptions of organizational support, and perceptions of organizational goal norms. Data collected from 134 of 200 randomly sampled workers in a Yugoslav tooling plant yielded weak correlations but also indicated a moderating effect of exchange ideology. These results have implications not only for Yugoslav self-management but also for exchange theory and the study of job attitudes.

Some reflections on self-management, social choice, and reform in eastern europe

East European reformers, in rejecting the use of self-management, base their judgment on the problems of Yugoslav self-management and a view that self-management and private ownership are incompatible. Viable systems of self-management can be devised, so the case hinges on the relative performance of self-managed and private firms. Using a sample of cooperatives and private firms, we compare performance in the structure of pay and employment, relative productivity, and growth. Labor management skews employment in favor of median voters, but does not harm productivity or growth, suggesting that reformers should not instantly dismiss self-management.

Work Satisfaction Under Yugoslav Self-Management: On Participation, Authority, and Ownership

Work Satisfaction Under Yugoslav Self-Management: On Participation, Authority, and Ownership

Work Satisfaction Under Yugoslav Self-Management: On Participation, Authority, and Ownership

Work Satisfaction Under Yugoslav Self-Management: On Participation, Authority, and Ownership

Decision Making in Yugoslav Self-management Enterprises

Decision Making in Yugoslav Self-management Enterprises

The Yugoslav Self-managed Firm in Historical Perspective

Any discussion of the Yugoslav self-managed firm must stress the historical changes which it has undergone. It is obvious that the theory of the self-managed firm must take into account real-life experience if it is to provide an explanation for what is happening. This paper will therefore present the main institutional changes in the development of Yugoslav self-management and the main characteristics of self-managed production units in each individual period. The discussion here is organized as follows:1 (1) a discussion of the role that self-managed production units played in particular periods (i.e. the process of decision-making, organization of the enterprise, role of management, relations to the environment); (2) a presentation of some basic characteristics in the development of Yugoslav selfmanagement which might be of importance for the theory of the selfmanaged firm and the possible future direction of Yugoslav selfmanagement as it is practiced.